Primal Journal - lpeppersauce

I'm new to Primal today (along with a lot of other New Years people, I'm sure), but I've been lurking on the forums for a few weeks and I figured a journal was a good way to get started. So here's my story. Sorry it's a little long.

I was always a little bit overweight as a teenager, but not too bad. Even when I went from being a very active high schooler to a relatively sedentary college student, I was never particularly concerned about it. That all changed in the summer before my senior year of college in 2007. First I got sick for a few weeks, most likely with mono, then got Bells Palsy, which means that one of my cranial nerves became severely inflamed (in my case, partially amputated) and half of my face was paralyzed. I went on prednisone for the inflammation, which seems to have aggravated an existing condition, PCOS, that I didn't know I had. Long story short, I went on prednisone for ten days and then gained 50 pounds in less than six months. Needless to say, this was all a pretty big blow to my self esteem. I went from a healthy-ish girl who smiled a lot to a fat girl who couldn't smile normally, blink one eye, or drink from a soda can (I can't press my lips together). The nerve then regrew wrong, so I could blink, but it made my mouth twitch, and trying to smile made my eye close. After a bunch of physical therapy, I've separated those movements, but I still can't smile on one side, and I have to get botox in my eyebrow four times a year to relax the overly-tight spastic muscles there.

For several years after that, my weight kept slowly climbing and I went to doctor after doctor trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Most of them gave me the usual "eat less and exercise more" line. One did diagnose PCOS, but said that there was no need to treat it unless I was trying to conceive. He didn't even mention insulin resistance. Finally, in January 2011, my GYN told me that blood sugar problems are often associated with PCOS and suggested I try Atkins. I only did it as a last-ditch effort to prove that there was something wrong with me and I couldn't lose weight. After all, I'd tried dieting before - low calorie, low fat, lots of whole grains - and exercising, mostly intense cardio, and nothing worked.

Much to my surprise, Atkins did work. I lost 50 lbs by that summer, but then gained 15 of it back over the holidays. In 2012, I lost 20 lbs, but then gained almost all of it back. I kept stalling out and getting frustrated, because although I had lost weight, I didn't like the way I looked, because I was still soft and pudgy. I kept trying to exercise, but then I would give it up because I didn't have time for 45 minutes of cardio a day, and it never seemed to help.

So here I am today, trying something a little different. I'm committed to sticking with the Primal Blueprint for at least the month of January. This is my personal 31 day challenge. I've already cleaned out my pantry and fridge, restocked them, and planned my day, including my meals and a nice after-lunch walk through a local nature park. Tonight, I'll install my new pullup bar and download an intervals timer app to my phone. Let's see how this goes!

I can understand where you are coming from...my first experience of low carb was Atkins but I found it unsustainable at the time. 4 years later, and I've been low carb for 2 years (Originally Paleo, but now Primal) and thriving on it. I no longer think of it as a diet, but a lifestyle, and I'd never change my present bloodwork for the old readings from High carb days.

I hope that you enjoy your journey and love it as much as I have enjoyed mine. Congratulations for taking the first step.

I don't really have a goal weight, because I've never been at my ideal and I don't know what it is. I want to get to at least 160, which would put me just at the top range of "healthy" for BMI. I know, that measure isn't worth much, but it would make the doctors stop fussing at me. When I get there, I'll reevaluate.

I don't really have a goal weight, because I've never been at my ideal and I don't know what it is. I want to get to at least 160, which would put me just at the top range of "healthy" for BMI. I know, that measure isn't worth much, but it would make the doctors stop fussing at me. When I get there, I'll reevaluate.

Don't worry, having embarassing photos actually helps to motivate....I stuck my embarassing photos to the fridge so they stared at me when I was in the kitchen.

Sorry I haven't updated in a couple days. Work (where I normally get to fool around online for at least a couple minutes every day) has been crazy. We just came back from our 11-day Christmas/New Years shutdown on Wednesday, and everyone's playing catch-up.

So far this week has been going pretty well. Exercise-wise, I went for a long walk in a nature park on Tuesday and have been trying to increase my walking during the day. I started using one of the further parking lots at work, which is actually almost a mile from my building (The closer lots are half a mile away. Our parking situation sucks.). Next week I'm going to start walking for half an hour at lunchtime (I had to work through lunch this week). I installed my pullup bar, but I haven't gotten in a strength workout yet, because I haven't been home very much.

Food-wise, I've been doing very well except for a couple spoonfuls of potatoes fried in canola oil last night at my parents' house. My mother (who does the cooking over there) has actually been very supportive of my diet the past couple years, making extra green vegetables and everything when I visit, but she's not quite on board with the "no vegetable oils, artificial sweeteners, or other chemicals" bit (which is new for me). I resisted the sugar-free Lifesavers and diet root beer she bought for me, and told her I wasn't eating artificial sweeteners right now. I figured the canola oil was a fight for another day and just ate some of the potatoes. I probably should have skipped them, since I'm trying to keep my carbs lower and lose weight. Oh well, they were very tasty (but would have been better fried in butter)! The rest of the meal was grilled zucchini, asparagus, and chicken, so I wasn't all bad.

I'm enjoying experimenting with my blender, greek yogurt, honey, and frozen berries for breakfasts, and I baked a nice 7-lb uncured ham that I've been eating for lunch every day with salad or leftover cooked veggies. Very tasty! Yesterday morning I was down from 178 to 175.4, which made me happy. I'm up a bit today from those darn potatoes, but I'm not worried. I know, I know, people say I shouldn't weigh myself everyday, but I like to. My little engineering brain says, "More data points is always better! Yay numbers!" Honestly, the number on the scale isn't usually a frustration for me. The mirror does that just fine!

In other news, I got my botox injections yesterday, so I'm good on that until April. My eyebrow was really starting to hurt (a phrase you don't hear often!), so I'll be happy when the botox kicks in in a couple days. At work, I've pushed my schedule back an hour, so I start at 7:30 now instead of 6:30. Since I tend to be a night owl by nature, it's nice to get that extra hour of sleep in the morning. It's also making bedtime less stressful, because I'm not as worried when I can't get to sleep until later. I'm a lot less stressed out in general right now because I finished almost all of my grad school applications. I only have one to go, which I'm starting today and is due on the 15th.

In the "play" department, my bellydance classes start again on Monday. I'm taking three this term: veil and techniques, which I've taken before, and Gypsy fusion, which is new for me. Veil and Gypsy are choreography classes set up to perform in April, and techniques is a drill class, which usually kicks my butt, but is a lot of fun. I just started dancing 9 months ago, and I'm hooked. I love tying on a shiny, jingly coin belt, shaking my hips, and calling it "exercise." And some of those shimmy workouts should count as sprints!

I did my first Four Essential Movements workout last night, and boy am I sore today! I am, of course, at the lowest level of the progression for everything, but I think I might be able to move up soon in the pushups. I predict months before I can do an actual pullup without using my legs to assist. I'm planning a long walk sometime this afternoon and hopefully my first sprints workout tomorrow.

I'm still doing well with food. I just filled my whipped cream dispenser (my favorite kitchen toy ever!) and used honey instead of the splenda I'd always used before. Very yummy! Down to 175.0 this morning, 3 lbs since Tuesday!